If you're going to be a serious cheese taster, you need serious tools -- or at least to be able to identify them.

Cheese knives come in lots of shapes and sizes made to handle hard, soft or semi-soft cheeses. A cuore is a heart-shaped (or spade-shaped) knife made for cutting hard cheeses. The bell-shaped campana is made for crumbly, firm and semi-soft cheeses. Both are shown above along with a spreader, which is used for soft cheeses.

There's also the familiar cheese plane, a spatula-like device that shaves cheese into uniform slices. Another useful tool, the cheese cleaver, makes it easier to cut cheese into cubes for your party platter.

1. Swissmar girolle

To make life easier, try a cheese board outfitted with a wire slicer and you'll have your cutting surface and cutting tool as one unit.

1. One uncommon cheese tool is the girolle, a winding cutter that makes curly flower-like shavings from wheels of a Swiss cheese called Tete de Moine (monk's head). $69.95 at comforthouse.com or (800) 359-7701. The smaller girouette, which can be used to shave cheese or chocolate, is $40 at amazon.com.

2. Swissmar hard cheese knife

2. A knife with a sharp tip makes it easier to cut through the rinds romano, parmesan and brie cheeses. The raised handle on this knife allows for cutting on a plate without hitting the plate lip. $11.95 at kendelcutlery.com or (877) 239-3048.

3. Swissmar soft cheese knife

3. Knives for soft, moist or semi-soft cheeses have holes in the blade to prevent sticking. Some, such as this Swissmar knife designed for soft cheeses such as brie, camembert and gruyere, have a forked end so you can cut and serve without changing tools. $12 at amazon.com.

4. Swissmar wire slicer

4. Like the cheese plane, a wire slicer cuts uniform slices from a block of cheese. This stainless steel model is adjustable for thicker or thinner slices, and it's suitable for semi-soft to firm cheeses. $14.95 at cutleryandmore.com or (800) 650-9866.

Images and product information courtesy of swisscatalogue.com, which is a great place to learn about cheese knives, fondue accessories and more.